Thursday, April 18, 2013

Ice Cream Maker

After reading about carrageenan, a carcinogenic derived from red algae, and finding out it’s in a lot of our foods, including ice cream, I bought an ice cream maker. It’s nothing fancy and I’m surprised at just how cheap they are. It picked it up yesterday but I couldn’t use it until today because you have to freeze the bowl for about 24 hours. I tried it last night but it just wasn’t cold enough so I poured the ice cream mixture into a glass jar and made it this morning. It turned out delicious, it’s vanilla with a handful of toffee bits thrown in. Oh but the fat and calorie content in this recipe is through the roof so I told the kids to enjoy it because they would never get it this rich again, ever!

When I was in town I stopped at one of our local grocery stores and they had cookies on sale for a $1.00 a box. They ended up as mini ice cream sandwiches with the homemade ice cream. Forgive the melting picture but my house is pretty warm and I wasn’t that fast with my camera. I also made strawberry-vanilla frozen yogurt popsicles, they are much lower in fat and calories than the ice cream and I substituted the sugar in both recipes for Xylitol, lowering the calories even more. Jevan loved them!

Remember the bird seed wreath I posted awhile ago? A downy woodpecker has made himself right at home with it. You’ll notice just how much of the wreath has been eaten and it’s still holding strong but I turn it every now and again. I also posted that you should keep it out of the rain but I really have no where else to hang it and it’s been rained on, snowed on, and had the wind banging it against the window but still seems okay. I’m not sure how long it will hold up to the downy’s claws but I guess we’ll see.

2 comments:

I'm all about reading up on things, but I prefer to get my health information from actual studies done by people who aren't connected with food blogging or anything pretty, glossy, or high profile, because I find it's too easy for people to get all band-wagon-y about the Issue du Jour. (This isn't to say that this "Food Babe" is a bad person; I'm researching The Cornucopia Institute and I think they're legit. I just prefer b&w research and long words in dry studies - at least I can figure out if what they're saying is real without the pretty skinny chick grinning at me.)

The Nat'l Institute of Health identifies the substance poligeenan (formerly referred to as degraded carrageenan) as not a food additive. It is this poligeenan which causes issues as a carcinogen.

The real issue with carrageenan, however, which few people twig to, is that it can, for some people with poor immune systems, an irritant which triggers an immune response - constant low-grade irritation can be a precursor to more serious things like colon cancer. Things like insulin resistance and the glucose tolerance are far more alarming to me, and more immediate...

Anyway, I'm all about homemade ice cream sandwiches, and will use any excuse to have them, and thanks for the heads-up, and making me study this some more.

Well said T! Everything you say is true and I have to remember that when I read these things, thanks for that. I was just reading about how agave nectar (something I use frequently) was supposed to be "pretty bad and worse than they thought." I did more reading and more searching and the original article was blown apart with decent facts, and links, to back it up, thank goodness I didn't toss my agave! lolAnother couple of reasons for making my own ice cream/yogurt is I can control the fat and also no chance of nuts, Sydney and Hubby are both allergic to certain nuts.

Links

Yarngear
A pattern for loomed slippers is located here.Loom Knit
The Loom Knitter's Pattern Central (Excellent videos!)Fraggle Loom Love
One of the best sites for info and tons of links.Aunty Bonnie's Page
Recipes, genealogy, herbs, holiday pages, and so much more.Hillbilly Housewife
Homemade EVERYTHING including my fav "Magic Milkshakes,"(no milk, ice cream, or sugar) if you like Homemade this is the place for you!Firmly Planted
Make your own whiteboard, simple and cheap! Great tutorial :)